How to Play Drop the Handkerchief

If your kids are tired of tag and duck-duck-goose and are looking for something new, drop-the-handkerchief might be just the game. A throwback to yesteryears, for sure, drop-the-handkerchief still delivers that good old-fashioned element of fun that it was designed to do. It's fun for kids--or for kids and their parents together. So, let's play!

Things You'll Need

• Handkerchief
• At least five people

Instructions

How to Play Drop the Handkerchief

1. Tell everyone to sit in a large circle. If you have less than ten people playing, make sure that everyone is at least 3 or 4 feet apart.

2. Pick someone to be "it." This person should stand up, leaving a hole in the circle where the person had previously been sitting.

3. Give the person who is "it" a handkerchief. The person should walk slowly around the circle (behind everyone). Finally, the person should drop the handkerchief behind someone.

4. The person who is "it," having dropped the handkerchief, should now run around the circle once, with the object being to arrive back at the spot where the handkerchief was dropped. Meanwhile, the person behind which the handkerchief was dropped should pursue the person who is "it." If the person who is "it" makes it back to the handkerchief first, he or she can sit in that spot, joining the circle. If the person who is "it" is caught before reaching the handkerchief, he or she must go to the middle of the circle--"to jail."

5. Either way, the pursuer now becomes "it" and repeats Steps 3 and 4.

6. To release a person from "jail" (the middle of the circle), the person behind whom the handkerchief is dropped can quickly grab it and toss it into jail, where the "prisoner" can snatch it up and jump out of the circle in pursuit of the person who is "it." If the prisoner can catch the person who is "it" before he or she reaches the place where the handkerchief was dropped, the prisoner becomes free and can rejoin the circle, while the person who tossed the handkerchief into the middle of the circle becomes "it." If not, the person who tossed the handkerchief into the middle of the circle simply becomes "it" and the prisoner returns to "jail."

Tips & Warnings

• Drop-the-handkerchief can be played with as few as five people--but the more, the better!

• This game is great with music playing in the background.

• Supervision may be necessary for younger children; this game is like a slightly more intense version of duck-duck goose!